EMPIRICAL STUDY OF THE STATE OF FORMATION OF THE LEXICAL COMPONENT OF SPEECH OF OLDER PRESCHOOL CHILDREN WITH AUTISM

Abstract

The article is devoted to the issue of the formation of the lexical component of speech in older preschool children with autism and the results of an empirical study of this aspect are represented.

The article presents a theoretical analysis of the source base, which reveals the essence of the category of children with autism and the peculiarities of the formation of speech activity in these preschoolers. Peculiarities of the formation and functioning of the lexical component of speech have also been established. It was determined that preschool children with autism are characterized by a limitation in the functioning of both active and passive vocabularies. Namely: significantly smaller vocabulary in accordance with the age norms of their peers with typical development; insufficient active vocabulary narrowed by certain lexical topics; getting stuck on specific topics and increasing vocabulary on this topic; decrease in the level of productive accumulation of passive vocabulary; difficulties in translating words from the passive to the active dictionary, etc. All of the above complicates the further process of forming the lexical component of speech in children with autism, improving the grammatical, phonetic-phonemic component, coherent speech and communication in general.

In order to confirm the determined theoretical data, the authors organized and conducted an experiment aimed at researching and clarifying the peculiarities of the formation of the lexical component of speech in older preschool children with autism spectrum disorders. Its content included two sets of tasks aimed at studying the state of formation of impressive (passive vocabulary) and expressive (active vocabulary) speech.

The obtained data of the experiment proved a significant decrease in the level of formation of the lexical component of speech in accordance with the age norms of older preschool children. The following individualized features were confirmed: a sufficient level of passive vocabulary development using a variety of words and phrases with high accuracy; the passive vocabulary is quantitatively smaller, but it is characterized by a corresponding variety; a low level of passive vocabulary development with an insufficient number of words and phrases with a limited variety; low level of formation of active vocabulary, etc.

The presented results of the study made it possible to come to the conclusion that when planning a corrective and developmental route for older preschool children, the principle of individualization should be followed, taking into account the individual characteristics of the speech development of a specific child with autistic age disorders and his needs to improve the lexical component of speech. Only this approach will ensure the effectiveness of speech therapy work and a qualitative increase in the vocabulary of a preschooler with autism.